Clear warning: A camera operation zone signboard is seen at KM6.6 of Jalan Kajang-Puchong.

PETALING JAYA: All speed traps, including those set up by the police,
must now have warning signs alerting motorists of the cameras ahead.
Signboards
must also be put up before traffic light junctions to warn road users
of cameras that would capture images of those who beat the red light.

Road Transport Department (JPJ) enforcement director Jaafar Mohamed
said for speed traps, warning signs would be placed between two and
three kilometres away from police mobile cameras and those operated
under the Automated Enforcement System (AES).

“We have also
agreed to an additional signboard within a kilometre of the camera to
further caution the motorists,” he said in an interview.

This means that there would be at least two warning signs to alert motorists of cameras ahead to effectively curb speeding.

Jaafar
said the move to make warning signs necessary was in line with the Road
Transport (Camera-Recorded Offences) Rules 2012, amended in September
this year, adding that Transport Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha had approved the changes.

He
said the warning signs for both the police speed trap cameras and AES
would have the same specifications to ensure equal standard.

Speed
traps set up by the police and under the AES would follow the amended
rules which, among others, state that a camera operation zone sign
should be erected between two and three kilometres from the location of a
static camera or mobile camera.

Under the same amendment, a
warning sign against failure to obey a red signal, must also be
displayed between 50 and 500m from the location of the detector system
for a static camera before traffic light junctions.

Bukit Aman Internal Security and Public Order director Comm Datuk Wira Salleh Mat Rasid said on Thursday that police officers had been told to carry out enforcement operations in the open.
He
urged the public to inform the police district headquarters if they
came across policeman hiding behind bushes or trees during operations.

“The men in blue must be visible at all times,” he said.
Jaafar
said the warning signboards would be displayed at more than 800
locations, identified as “black spots” or accident-prone areas.

“This
is in addition to the 831 black spots' where AES cameras will be set
up,” he said. “Hence, there is no overlapping of enforcement by the
police and JPJ.”

He said currently police put up warning signs
before mobile speed trap cameras but the notices were not according to
the recently amended road transport rules.

Jaafar said the
signboards would be erected as soon as an inter-department Government
committee had ironed out details on enforcement.